Oregon – CatholicVote.orghttps://www.catholicvote.org
The mission of CatholicVote.org is to educate and inspire Americans of all faiths to prioritize the issues of life, faith, and family.Fri, 09 Dec 2016 11:00:46 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1The CatholicVote Podcast is at the intersection of faith, politics, and popular culture. Subscribe to the CV Podcast today.Oregon – CatholicVote.orgcleanOregon – CatholicVote.orgmercer@catholicvote.orgmercer@catholicvote.org (Oregon – CatholicVote.org)The mission of CatholicVote.org is to educate and inspire Americans of all faiths to prioritize the issues of life, faith, and family.Oregon – CatholicVote.orghttps://catholicvote.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/CV-Podcast-iTunes-Cover-1400x1400.pnghttps://www.catholicvote.org
mercer@catholicvote.org“If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married!”https://www.catholicvote.org/if-you-dont-like-gay-marriage-dont-get-gay-married/
https://www.catholicvote.org/if-you-dont-like-gay-marriage-dont-get-gay-married/#respondTue, 05 Feb 2013 04:09:21 +0000http://catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=41940… at least, that’s how simple so many advocates of gay “marriage” make it seem. Have you heard that line before? It’s been practically a tagline for some of the commenters around here.

But it isn’t that simple. Marriage is a fundamental institution to society. The recognition and celebration of a marriage has ramifications for the individuals’ families, any children, employers, the businesses involved, and beyond.

GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) — The state attorney general’s office is investigating a consumer complaint filed against a Gresham bakery that declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.

The Oregonian and KATU report that Laurel Bowman wrote the complaint against Sweet Cakes By Melissa after she and her fiancée went to the bakery Jan. 17.

In her complaint, Bowman said the owner refused to make the cake when he learned it was for a same-sex wedding and called the couple “abominations unto the lord.”

Bakery owner Aaron Klein told The Oregonian he sells cakes to customers of all sexual orientations, but same-sex marriage goes against his Christian faith.

He denies calling the couple “abominations.”

The attorney general’s office is waiting for Sweet Cakes’ official account before deciding whether to take action.

The “abominations” comment most likely was Klein saying gay “marriage” is an abomination unto the Lord, and not the ones who pursue it, but that distinction between the action and the person who partakes in the action is frequently lost on the willfully aggrieved.

“If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married.”

The couple could have observed this axiom, left alone the cake maker whose is conscientiously opposed to gay marriage, and taken their business elsewhere. They did not do that. Instead they decided to report the actions of the cake maker simply for disagreeing with their view of marriage.

Truth is, “If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married,” is not the guiding principle of the gay marriage movement. That guiding principle is to force everyone to accept gay “marriages” as exactly the same thing as actual marriages in every way.

And frankly, once marriage, sex, and procreation are untethered from one another, they have a point. Tough to insist on marriage-before-sex-which-must-be-open-to-children when the underlying anthropology and theology that explain why are ignored and so many who oppose same-sex “marriage” have no problem with contracepted sex within marriage.

But be that as it may, that does not mean anyone deserves to be discriminated against; nor does it mean marriage can or should be redefined by governmental fiat.

These are not contradictory statements.

Just today a prelate at the Vatican called for greater protection of homosexual persons, noting in particular those who identify as a couple. As Deacon Greg Kandra notes:

A high-ranking Vatican official on Monday (Feb. 4) voiced support for giving unmarried couples some kind of legal protection even as he reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, also said the church should do more to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in countries where homosexuality is illegal.

In his first Vatican press conference since his appointment as the Catholic Church’s “minister” for family, Paglia conceded that there are several kinds of “cohabitation forms that do not constitute a family,” and that their number is growing.

Paglia suggested that nations could find “private law solutions” to help individuals who live in non-matrimonial relations, “to prevent injustice and make their life easier.”

Nevertheless, Paglia was adamant in reaffirming society’s duty to preserve the unique value of marriage.

“The church must defend the truth, and the truth is that a marriage is only between a man and a woman,” he said. Other kinds of “affections” cannot be the foundation for a “public structure” such as marriage.

“We cannot surrender to a sick egalitarianism that abolishes every difference,” he warned, and run the risk of society becoming a new “Babel.”

All emphases mine.

All protections due to all persons, plus some method of recognizing in contract law a relationship or agreement between two persons regardless of gender.

But we do no one any favors by calling up, “down;” black, “white;” or same-sex couples, “married,” with all rights and expectations appertaining thereto.

The family unit, that fundamental unit of society, is, in its essentials, a mother, a father, and the children they produce in their committed, loving relationship. Circumstances beyond our control can alter families in various ways—infertility, illness, death—but intentionally messing with the essentials of the family unit to satisfy the wants of a few people tears away at the fabric of society.

They say, “if you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get gay married,” but it really isn’t that simple.